Lyndon Letter: standing up for free speech

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course and decisions reversed. Toby Young’s Free Speech Union has already successfully challenged the justice of no-platforming both Professor Selina Todd and former Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

Rev Lyndon Bowring CHAIRMAN

As Voltaire, the atheist French philosopher stated: ‘I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ In a free country we must be allowed to oppose – reasonably and with tolerance – ideas with which we completely disagree.

I deeply admire how Christian apologists, like the renowned mathematician Professor John Lennox, debate with prominent atheists, such as Richard Dawkins. Lennox says, ‘I stand publicly for free and fair debate. Let people hear different sides of the argument and trust them to have the capacity to make up their own mind.’ That’s tolerance! Having firmly held beliefs but being willing to listen to others’ opposing views. As Paul urged the Ephesians, may we always ‘speak the truth in love.’

Thank you again for your ongoing support in prayer, giving and encouragement in these challenging times. We want freedom extended and His freedom proclaimed from the rooftops! May God grant us continued wisdom, courage, grace and discernment to do this. It won’t be easy but with the Lord’s help we can do it!

June 2020 Yours in His mercy and grace,

FREEDOM OF SPEECH Toby Young, an experienced journalist who helped found Free Schools and worked with several education charities, recently set up the Free Speech Union. He believes free speech is ‘the bedrock on which all our other freedoms rest, yet it’s currently in greater peril than at any time since the Second World War.’ Young describes the campaign against him in 2018, when Theresa May appointed him as University Regulator, as: ‘trial by social media: guilty until proven innocent and, by the way, there’s no chance to defend yourself. They dug up some stuff, took it out of context, and portrayed me as a bigot.’ Within days, he lost the job.

Rev Lyndon Bowring CHAIRMAN

People of very different persuasions are backing Toby Young, even though he’s a staunch Conservative. These include Labour party member Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission; leading feminist intellectuals, and gay rights activists who’ve been ‘no-platformed’ in universities because of their unfashionable views. Professor Selina Todd, for example, was accompanied by security guards to lectures after receiving threats from transgender activists and banned from speaking at a conference at Oxford University that she’d helped organise! So, I’ve joined the Free Speech Union too, in the hope that we can make a positive contribution.

CAREORGUK

CARE.ORG.UK

CARE (Christian Action Research & Education) | Chief Executive Nola Leach | Chairman Rev Lyndon Bowring 53 Romney St, London, SW1P 3RF | 020 7233 0455 | mail@care.org.uk | Charity No: 1066963 | Scottish Charity No: SC038911

Genuine hate speech, for example inciting violence against persons because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or other protected characteristics, is clearly wrong and should be banned. But when people who simply don’t agree with mainstream opinions are silenced, rather than argued with openly, that’s a serious threat to our freedom. Satirists and other

comedians, who importantly often express what ordinary people think, need to be allowed to offend and poke fun. People with deep beliefs should be at liberty to express them and be challenged – whether that’s atheists challenging the existence of God; people of religious faith quoting from their scriptures; or those arguing on opposite sides of the ‘trans’ debate.

Unfortunately, in recent years there’s been a slow but steady demise of the freedom of speech. There have been cases brought against Christians, including a mother sacked by her school after posting concerns on her Facebook page about the sex education lessons at her own child’s primary school. Ten years ago, expressing the belief that marriage, as a holy union before God, is exclusively between one man and one woman was mainstream and accepted.

Now, someone tweeting such a thing could lose their job.

UNACCEPTABLE TRUTHS The idea of absolute truth is no longer something everyone believes in. The eighteenthcentury Enlightenment, which said the only way for human dignity to flourish is to deny God, underlines modern thinking. Far fewer people today believe the Bible – what Francis Shaeffer called ‘true truth’. Instead, the humanist would say; ‘I have my truth and you have yours and we shouldn’t let our beliefs affect what happens in the public arena.’ So a nurse offering to pray for a distressed patient might be severely reprimanded. And a University Christian Union debate on what the Bible says about gender is likely to be banned.

It’s important to note that this kind of treatment is relatively insignificant compared to the fierce persecution suffered by our brothers and sisters across the world, so we need to keep them very much in our prayers and campaigning efforts, and hold these things in perspective.

As followers of Christ, we should expect to be challenged and opposed for the sake of the gospel and we need to be wise – not offending others unnecessarily. Peter wrote, ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience.’ We must be truthful, but we must be kind too.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER TO US AS CHRISTIANS? Eleanor Roosevelt, herself a practising Christian, was – alongside other believers – a major driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was introduced by this statement: ‘human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want.’ The Declaration’s Article 19 affirms that ‘everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression’. But over the following decades, there have been suggestions that to ban any speech that’s deemed offensive or unkind has weakened this bold declaration. The late Roger Scruton remarked, ‘Europe is rapidly

jettisoning its Christian heritage and has found nothing to put in the place of it save the religion of “human rights.”’ But without a solid Biblical basis, how can we judge which human rights take precedence when they appear to conflict with each other? As Professor Nigel Cameron, a longstanding friend and former policy and ethics consultant to CARE has written: ‘Only when the Glory of God is at the beginning and the end, and we find our right place just under God, will human dignity flourish. Ideas of human rights, sanctity of life, care of the weak all arise from this fact: that we are all made in His image, space-time models of God Himself.’

Christians have a duty to support the most vulnerable and to speak up for what we hold to be true. Jesus, ‘full of grace and truth’ promised: ‘You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’. The dictionary defines the opposite of truth as, ‘dishonesty, favouritism, injustice, partiality, unfairness, unreasonableness, untruth, wrong.’ Any society that rejects truth will drift into this unacceptable conduct which so easily leads to restricting freedom and marginalising groups of people.

Enclosed with this letter is our latest prayer resource Ten Ways to Pray about Freedom of Speech which I hope will be helpful to you.

ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE For many years now, CARE’s Public Policy team has worked with politicians behind the scenes to protect people’s right to freedom of religion or belief in the workplace – what’s called ‘reasonable accommodation’.

The UK has left the European Union, but we’re still part of the Council of Europe, a separate group of 47 states set up in 1949 to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

CARE has worked alongside some inspiring European Christian MPs in the Council, including Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP. So, we were greatly encouraged when a resolution was passed in January calling on member states to affirm the freedom of religion or belief in the workplace.

This made sure employment and religious belief can co-exist, so that employees may flourish.

Although this significant resolution has no power to make member states change their laws, it’s still a significant step forward in protecting the rights of Christians and those of other faiths, so they don’t have to leave their religious identity at the workplace door.

TRUE TOLERANCE Paul Coleman, Executive Director of ADF International, says: ‘The whole purpose of equality law is to protect people from being discriminated against, not to compel individuals to promote ideas with which they disagree.’ There are instances of Christians and others being required to act against their consciences, such as medical and nursing staff having to participate in abortions, even though this goes against their deeply held beliefs.

Eleanor Roosevelt memorialised as the first US delegate to the UN.

There is undoubtedly less freedom and tolerance around today. Opinions on certain issues are heavily censored, whilst others seem to be sacrosanct. Whatever one’s views about Franklin Graham – the evangelist son of Billy Graham – the fact that venues refused to allow him to preach and hold events this year was wrong, and I hope apologies will be forthcoming in due